Tears For Fears?

Meyer's Emotional Outburst Creates Debate

GAINESVILLE — With the cameras lights on, the microphones live and the tape recorder dials spinning, Florida coach Urban Meyer started to squirm.

As he broke down details of UF's 21-17 loss at LSU last Saturday night, Meyer took a few long blinks, wincing on occasion, as though the words he spoke brought physical pain.

Meyer resembled a man remembering a nightmare. And then, when a question came about the play of beleaguered starting quarterback Chris Leak, the coached cracked.

He shifted in his seat, looked down, and paused in the silent room for 21 seconds. When he peeked at the cameras again, his eyes were red and moist, and a tear escaped down his left cheek.

"Tell you what I liked," Meyer said, after offering a few words about Leak's tough afternoon.

"I liked the passion. I liked the way our guys played today. I haven't seen a lot of that from our team."

With a towel, Meyer erased the tear and managed to seven more minutes of inquiries. But the coach crying, an image broadcast on Sun Sports several times since Saturday, seemed as disturbing as anything that happened on the field earlier in the day.

In his 10 months since taking the job, Meyer's shown immeasurable passion for restoring the Gators to past glory. Save a few one-liners and sideline outbursts, he's conducted himself with a steady composure familiar in the coaching profession. He always appeared in control.

But Saturday's scene in an interview room at LSU's Tiger Stadium changed that.

"I never saw anything but a guy in total control," said Bowling Green Athletic Director Paul Krebs, who hired Meyer at the school late in 2000. "He was always poised and in control of every situation."

So what should Gators fans make of this temporary change in conduct? Was the crying coach overwhelmed? Was he panicking, unsure of what to say or do? Has he lost poise and control?

Probably not, says Joel Fish, the director of the Philadelphia-based Center for Sports Psychology. Fish attributed Meyer's tears to culmination of a long week of preparation that ended with an on-field failure.

"He's a really competitive guy who, in the heat of the moment, got emotional," Fish said. "I don't think there's any relationship between that and how good a coach he is or how he can handle the pressure."

Florida's players and coaches echoed the same thought. Although none of them saw their head coach's breakdown in person, they said Meyer may be disappointed but certainly not frightened.

"We're all very vested," said cornerbacks coach Chuck Heater, who added he's never seen Meyer react in such fashion. "There are some kids who've done everything you've asked them to do. And to come up short, in a game of that magnitude, breaks your heart for those kids."

Coming up short ranks among Meyer's worst fear. He's gone days without eating or sleeping after losses, according to several published reports, and he admitted Tuesday that he's felt restless since the LSU loss, feeling as though he let down the players.

But the tears take the fear up a level. It's a rare reaction for a coach, with only Kansas City Chiefs head man Dick Vermeil known for showing such emotion on a consistent basis.

In 2004, then-Portland Trail Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks cried in front of reporters during his team's midseason losing skid. Ron Zook, now head coach at Illinois, cried during at a press conference the day Florida fired him. And several players and coaches, most recently hockey's Brett Hull, have cried during retirement ceremonies.

None of those incidents discredited the men. So neither, Fish said, should Saturday hurt Meyer.

"I look for patterns," Fish said. "Most of us may act consistently in a situation 98 out of 100 times, but it's rare that we're consistent 100 out of 100 times.

"If it starts to be a pattern, we need to look at what's the issue here. One time doesn't constitute a pattern."